Immaterial
/ˌɪməˈtɪəriəl/noun
Not consisting of physical matter or having physical substance; also unimportant in a particular context.
Did you know?Medieval philosophers used “immaterial” in discussions of angels, souls, and God—beings believed to exist without being made of physical matter.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*méh₂tēr
“Mother; the ancestral root behind words for mother and maternal substance”
Ancient Latin
Latin
māter
“Mother; source of the later Latin family connected with material and matrix”
Classical Latin
Latin
māteria
“Matter or material substance, originally associated with timber or the material of which something is made”
Late Latin
Latin
immātēriālis
“Not material; lacking physical substance”
Middle English
English
immaterial
“Not made of matter; spiritual or lacking bodily substance”
Modern English
English
immaterial
“Nonphysical, or irrelevant and therefore not worth considering”
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